Dotty In A Bloggy Dither – Help!

I need to catch up with reading blogs but I’ve followed so many good blogs I’m becoming overwhelmed by it all. I’ve got a big pile of emails of posts to go through, and I’ve got my favourites that I love to go and read two or three posts at a time, and I’ve got the blogs I look at on the WordPress Reader, and I’ve got the new blogs I’ve followed and want to read more of because I like the look of them, and I’ve got the blogs of people who’ve followed me to check out.

I FEEL SO FUCKING GUILTY that I’m not being a good bloggy friend when you’re all so nice to me and keep coming back. And I feel guilty because I might miss you out and then you’ll think I don’t like your blog, or you’ll think I’m being an ignorant cow when I’m not deliberately ignoring you I’m just finding it really, really hard to keep up – to the point where I didn’t want to come online this morning because I knew all the posts I missed on my day off yesterday were waiting for me, and those from the day before that I hadn’t got round to, and the day before that, and the day before that. And I know myself too well, if something I love doing starts to become a chore I jack it in, drop it, bye bye hard thing to do, and that’s it, I never go back to it – but I don’t want to stop doing this, I love everything about blogging (except WordPress giving me a new personality).

How do you manage to keep up without spending every minute of every day online? And without feeling guilty and horrible for not visiting everyone’s blogs?

83 Comments

Missus Tribble

I try to read all of my blogs, but usually only respond when I have something of substance to add. Unless I’m being called Ron Weasley for being scared of spiders (like I was yesterday) or trying to figure out which Amy you’re supposed to be.

I love having loads to read but I think I’ve gone a bit over the top with the following thing – I had well over 300 new post emails yesterday and that’s just the ones I have on email, others come through the WordPress reader and others are ones I visit.

Go to Settings, Discussion, Blogs I follow, Reader. You will find a list of all the blogs there, along with the choice of instantly, daily, weekly, or never post notification. You’ll find you will start saving time the minute you do this, and you’ll be guaranteed to read all the posts you want to. I hope this helps. And I would never call you an ignorant cow — so easy to get overwhelmed, as you’ve found. 😎

Love to give you advice, but i am far to busy catching up on my blog reading. A common issue isn’t it. The weekly suggestion by judithatwood worked well for me. I only go crazy on Monday and Tuesday that way.

I know you’ve mentioned it in your other posts, but why not do a post specifically to tell your followers to check their Spam messages when there are some in the folder? I always check when I see there’s something in there since I first found you there. Another person ended up in Spam too the other day – whatever WordPress are doing, you’re not the only one. I’m still having some problems with comments on other people’s blogs too.

Relax, Dotty. Don’t bang your head. I don’t think anything. Whether you visit my blog or not is immaterial. You recently brought yourself to my attention. Thanks. You make me laugh so much that if you never glanced at my blog again I’d still be a winner.

Feeling guilty is a waste of time. Mind you, by way of synchronicity: Only this morning I was wondering how some of bloggers deal with the avalanche. Which is why I spread myself thinly. Quality over quantity.

I can imagine it must be tough for you since you have ever so many fans! And there are so many cool blogs that it’s easy to follow a zillion of them and then realize, Oh, shit, I haven’t read most of this yet.

Personally, I’m just going to quit my job so I can just sit around all day and read blogs and post comments. Sure, I won’t be able to afford food or my mortgage anymore. But one must have one’s priorities in order.

Dear D. I limited myself to getting only 3 blogs notified to me by email (yours is one!), and the rest I can see via Reader when I have a half an hour or so free, and then scroll down to see what grabs me. Otherwise it’ll be on the bottle again….yrs D.

Dorothy

Well, Dotty, I don’t have the popularity that you have seeing how anti-social I am so I don’t have that problem. I follow the blogs I have and read them as they are posted and comment as they come up. Unless I need to think more about my comment, then I return at a later time when I have more quiet to think. Then again, MIND TWO aka BRAIN TWO says whatever it wants whenever it wants.
To summarize, Dotty, don’t worry, be happy! or at least eat a cumberland sausage sandwich while being happy!
Love Dorothy

I take about 45 mins to 1 hour to catch up on my blogs… usually right before I go to bed… there are some I read every night but there are some I’ll just comment on if I find them interesting 🙂

I will admit to cheating a little too… sometimes I click the LIke button in the Reader without reading the post, just because I want to show my support but don’t have time to fully read what they’ve written…

Aah, no – don’t do that Like thing, I don’t think it’s fair.
I never click Like if I haven’t read the post and genuinely liked something about it. If I don’t like it for whatever reason I don’t click Like.

Just chill! Remember, YOU’re in charge. And if you’re not, you should be. WordPress keeps trying to take us over but we’ll fight to the end! I’m not supposed to be on my computer today. Don’t know what I’m doing here!

Dotty, dear, Dotty,
As I mentioned on Clown’s recent post earlier, I got trapped in the muck and mire irl for about the past six weeks or so. I’ve missed all the ones I reaIly and follow, but especially yours and Clown’s. There is a back log of blog reading for me, but what I’ve done is not subscribe to the email notifications. Apparently I missed the fact I’ll get emails when one or many reply to my comments. Thanks for pointing out how to avoid that on.

Anyway, I started to scroll through the Blogs I follow page and got overwhelmed. So, I clicked on the little magnifying glass in the upper right corner and searched on your name and on Clown’s name. Voila, after a midirect or two, I came upon the most recent post for you.

I, as one of many it seems, don’t expect or judge you or your value on your level of or ability to reciprocate. I enjoy visiting you and even if you never replied to any comment or liked a single post of mine, I would still visit every chance I get. Please don’t leave.

I don’t intend to leave – I just know from past experience how I am if things get too overwhelming, I put up with it for a short while until, on the spur of the moment, I do something drastic which I usually regret later. But I really don’t want to give up the blog so I’m trying to prevent that happening by finding a way to manage it all. If WordPress would disable the Follow button on everyone else’s blog, that would help. I’m like a little kid in a sweetshop, I can’t resist all the goodies.

quite easy. click on the title of the blog you want to follow, so that the URL (at the top of your browser) is for the whole blog and not just the post you are reading. click in the URL so that it is highlighted and then ctrl c. open your wordpress reading page. next to Blogs I Follow is a greyed out Edit List. click on that, and when it has stopped thinking (takes a while) you will have the list of all the blogs you follow in wp and not the blogs themselves. at the top of this list is a box with Enter a Blog URL inside it. you delete that AND the http bit if you have that in your copied bit from the blog you are importing, and ctrl p. then hit the button that says ‘follow’ and you should be good to go. sometimes it seems to dislike it if there is a / at the end of the address, but will accept the blog if you take that off. i know it sounds fiddly, but once you have done it a couple of times you will be fine, it’s worth the reward of having all your reading in one place.

A big THANK YOU for explaining it all. I’ve seen blogs on other sites that I’ve had to add to my Internet Explorer Favourites list to get back to, now I’ll have a go at putting them in the Reader. Thanks. 🙂

Dready (oops I’ma leave that typing mistake in–you’ll have to forgive, I’m not wearing my splint) Dear Dotty,
I’ll have to say I feel the same as you do ESPECIALLY since I took my few days leave and will continue to (I merely stopped by to see a few of my favorite bloggies). Anyway, I think most dedicated bloggers feel this overwhelmed feeling you’re experiencing with reading all these good blogs (even non-mentals gets overwhelmed, could you believe it?) and well, we gotta realize there’s just not damn time in this gregorian calendar for it, even if we try our best to.

Love xoxoxxx

p.s. I sent you emails and I know you’re not ignoring them because I’ve been hiding in your cupboard when I write them and I see when you overlook them because you get all blalalaal when you see so many others in your inbox. BUT IF I notice you putting them aside, I’m gonna…

I’m surprised your head isn’t spinning from reading all the solutions for your reading. 😀

Just know you are not alone. We all get that guilty feeling. Way to much good stuff. I try when I get back to someone’s blog, to at least catch up on what I might have missed. This way I’m still showing my support even if a few days late.

I’m like you, I only “Like” what I read. I always laugh though when someone doesn’t hit like, yet comments they like, so its like alike even though they didn’t hit like..

I do the same, I work my way back through the posts I haven’t read. I’ve been trying not to follow any new blogs today but I can’t help it. And I always follow the blogs of people who follow me because I think it’s RUDE not to. 🙂

Sometimes I comment and forget to go back up to click the Like button – maybe that’s why it happens?

I think my earlier idea of getting WordPress to disable Follow on every single blog on WordPress until I get sorted out is worth pursuing. I’m going to email them and ask if they’ll do it. 🙂

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